Bears notebook: Chicago loses three starters to injury

Monday

Sep 29, 2008 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2008 at 4:11 AM

Brandon Lloyd, Chicago’s leading receiver, caught two first-half passes for 33 yards, then left with a knee injury Sunday night. Cornerback Charles Tillman left the game in the third quarter after hurting his shoulder on a failed tackle attempt. The Bears lost their other starting cornerback, Nathan Vasher, to a fourth-quarter thumb injury.

Matt Trowbridge

Brandon Lloyd, Chicago’s leading receiver, caught two first-half passes for 33 yards, then left with a knee injury Sunday night. His 24-yard grab on third-and-5 set up a 20-yard TD pass to Devin Hester that gave Chicago a 21-14 halftime lead.

Cornerback Charles Tillman left the game in the third quarter after hurting his shoulder on a failed tackle attempt.

The Bears lost their other starting cornerback, Nathan Vasher, to a fourth-quarter thumb injury.

Hester gained 24 yards on the return, to Chicago’s 32. Considine also combined to tackle Hester at the 20 on Philadelphia’s second kickoff. He also tackled Hester for a 3-yard gain on a third-quarter punt return.

Sunday night, Tillman was called for roughing the kicker on third-and-20 at the 20-yard line, but was spared when the Eagles were called for illegal formation. After the offsetting penalties, Philadelphia punted again and Chicago took over at its own 45 with the scored tied 7-all in the first quarter.

Tommie Harris inactive

Three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Tommie Harris (knee) was inactive for Chicago. Harris had only two tackles in the Bears’ first three games and practiced little this week.

While the Bears missed Harris, the Eagles came in hurting even worse. Pro Bowl running back Brian Westbrook (ankle) and Kevin Curtis (sports hernia), who had 1,110 yards receiving last year, were inactive for Philadelphia.

The Eagles also played without Pro Bowl right guard Shawn Andrews (back) and tight end L.J. Smith.

Chicago’s other inactives included four of its top five draft picks this year: Earl Bennett, Marcus Hamilton, Craig Steltz and Chris Williams.

Feast or famine ‘D’

Last week, Chicago’s defense held Tampa Bay to four plays or less on eight of the Bucs’ first 10 drives, before giving up four long drives at the end of the game.

Sunday, the Bears held the Eagles to four plays or less on five of their seven first-half drives, but the other two were TD drives of 67 and 74 yards.

The Bears ended two early drives with sacks, forced an incomplete pass with heavy blitz pressure on the third and, in the biggest stop, Alex Brown stuffed Cornell Buckhalter for no gain on third-and-1. David Akers missed wide right on a 50-yard field goal on the next play.

E-scoreboard operator

After David Akers’ 24-yard field goal brought the Eagles to within 21-20, the scoreboard operator gave the points to the Bears. The scoreboard read 24-17 for two or three minutes until the officials announced the correct score over the loudspeakers.